The Norwegian oil major Statoil has now officially confirmed the sailaway of the Aasta Hansteen topside, after posting a photo of the giant structure departing from South Korea, and leaving for for Norway.
The image, showing the heavy transport vessel Dockwise White Marlin carrying the topside departing from South Korea, was shared on Thursday through Statoil’s social media channels.
Based on the heavy lift vessels’ AIS data, Offshore Energy Today has earlier this week already reported of the vessel’s departure from Ulsan which will, according to Statoil, take two months to reach Norway. The White Marlin’s first stop will be in Port Louis, Mauritius, on October 21.
When the topside arrives at its destination, it will be mounted on top of the massive spar substructure upended in early July .
The substructure for the world’s largest spar platform arrived from Hyundai Heavy Industries’ facility in Ulsan, South Korea to Norway on June 18, 2017, after a 14,500 nautical mile journey at sea.
The Aasta Hansteen platform will be Norway’s first spar platform in production. Spar is a cylindrical, partially submerged offshore drilling and production platform that is particularly well adapted to deepwater.
The gas discovery – previously named Luva – is situated at a depth of 1,300 meters in the Vøring area, 300 kilometers from land. Statoil is the operator of the field with Wintershall, OMV, and ConocoPhillips as partners.
Offshore Energy Today Staff